Detroit Rock City Movie Review

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Kiss isn't exactly the best band in the world, but even if they were, Detroit Rock City would be anything but. The movie follows the exploits of four young fans determined to make it to a Kiss concert in Detroit, despite the fact that their tickets have been burned.

Edward Furlong, Sam Huntington, James DeBello, and Giuseppe Andrews are the four fans, and probably the only four fans of the movie. Actually, maybe once seeing the premiere they realized just how bad a career move Detroit Rock City really was. The script sucks, the direction sucks, and the characters suck. All four guys are in high school but the movie takes great privilege in showing that they love to smoke and get high, and that they're pretty sick and stupid.

The story is as bad as the dialogue. Detroit Rock City goes from one unbelievable situation to the next without hardly providing any comical relief, with exceptions to a few small scenes that fall far short of saving this wretched film. The guys get beaten up a dozen times over by various people, strip to get money, offer sexual favors, and even beat themselves up to get into the concert. If played out right, Mrs. Bruce (Lin Shaye), Jam's freaky religious mother, might have been funny, but it doesn't work that way.

Even though Kiss music sucks, there are a lot of Kiss fans out there. They won't like this film. Kiss fans might have a bad taste in music but they aren't stupid. They'll realize just how bad this movie is and do to the videotape to what the guitarist does to his guitar at the end of a song. And the reason they won't even give this movie a chance is that Kiss is only in the movie for about one minute in the very end, and it looks like most of the footage was pulled directly from a real concert.

There are a few gratifying moments thrown in here and there but most of Detroit Rock City should be thrown on jagged rocks to die. Kiss fans won't like it because Kiss is barely in it, and the everyone will realize in the first three minutes just how crappy this film is.